A Place to Heal
by reddneckin
Summary: When Andy Hillstrands ex calls him, he leaves in the middle of the night without a word, and Lizzie is certain things are over. Find out what happens in book 3 of The Place series. As Tropical Storm Andrea is pounding the snot out of us, I figured I would sit down and add a few more lines to the story. Ya'll don't forget to hit that review button now.


Lizzie was in the hayloft pitching hay down for the horses with a pitchfork. It was raining like hell, but she was not complaining. Not only was it cooling things off, they badly needed the rain. The pond on the south end of the property had nearly dried up.

Lizzie hopped down out of the loft and started pitching huge loads of hay into the stalls for the horses. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and looked at the Caller ID for the hundredth time.  
"He's not gonna call you" She told herself. Hot tears welled up in her eyes, but she refused to cry. He did not deserve for her to cry over him. "Well, that just settles it Emma Elizabeth" She said to herself outloud. "No more men for you" Her workhorse Barron tossed his head and snorted, as if to say "Hey what about me" Lizzie laughed and walked over to pat him on his neck.

"Except maybe for you" she rubbed the horse on the nose. "You are probably the only man who has never broken my heart"

Lizzie gathered up the tools and returned them to the shed and then locked the door behind her. She climbed into the truck and turned the key. Lizzie had forgotten that she and Andy had taken the truck into town and his CD was still in the player. "Tonight its you" by Cheap Trick blared through the speakers. Lizzie slammed on the breaks, popped the CD out, rolled the truck window down and threw the CD as far as she could. "I hope a bear shits all over it" She thought to herself.

Lizzie got back to the main house and went upstairs to her room. Closing the door behind her, she dropped her duffle bag on the floor and sat down in the chair that was her mama's to take her boots off. She looked over at her bed. A flood of memories came back to her of the things that she and Andy had done in that bed. He had more than once taken her to ecstasy and back. Lizzie went into the bathroom and cut the shower on. She stood under the hot water and sobbed. God she hated him. Lizzie collapsed on the shower floor, her body convulsing with sobs. She despised the day she had ever laid eyes on Andy Hillstrand.

Andy was driving down a long dirt road in Indiana. His ex wife had called him and told him they had some things to settle and he needed to fly home. Andy no longer considered this his home and could not wait to get back to Georgia to Lizzie. He had been trying to call her, but there was no service on his phone. He and Sabrina had gotten into a horrible fight when she finally told him that she had born a child by another man eighteen years ago.

"Well then that explains why when I came home you never wanted me to touch you. You wanted to sleep on the couch because your back hurt" Andy glared at her. He had never hit a woman in his life, and resisted the urge to knock her head off. He got an inch from her face, nostrils flaring and growled "I will hate you till the day I die for this. I was good to you. You lived like a fucking queen thanks to me" To add insult to injury, Andy found out that it was one of his close friends she had cheated on him with.

He had left without an explanation to Lizzie, and he hated himself for it. She deserved better, and

he hoped like hell that she would forgive him. That was the one thing in his life that was good, and he did not want to lose her.

His phone buzzed and he looked down at the Caller ID. He recognized Lizzie's brother Rusty's number and answered it.

"Hey man, where the hell are ya" Rusty;s drawl was about as thick as Lizzie's.

"Had to come back to Indiana to sign some papers. How are things going there?"

"Not too good, not too good. I would guard my balls if I were you boy" Rusty went on to tell Andy that Lizzie was a wreck.

"Lizzie's pretty easy going, but you don't want to piss her off" Andy knew all too well that when she was pissed, she was a force to be reckoned with.

"I have been trying to call her, but the service is not too good out here" Andy said, and Rusty could tell. He was breaking up bad.

"Well, gimme a ring when your plane lands and I will come and pick you up. Lizzie's liable to tell you to take a long ass jump if you call the office"

"OK, later dude" Andy hung up the phone and slammed his hands on the steering wheel.

Rusty found Lizzie in her favorite spot, on the front porch swing. He could tell she was upset, because she was twirling her hair around her first finger. She always did that when she was upset.

"Hey sassy" He called her by his pet name for her when he knew she was upset about something. He plopped down on the swing beside her.

"Hey" She looked straight ahead, still twirling her hair.

Rusty pulled his Marlboro's out of his pocket and lit one. He took a long drag and stole a sideway's glace at his sister. She had been through a lot in her lifetime Tough as nails. She was a hell of a lot tougher than a lot of men he knew.

"I talked to Andy a while ago." Lizzie's head snapped to her right and she glared at her brother, her brown eyes flashing fire.

"Where the hell is he"

"He had to go back to Indiana to tie up some loose ends with his divorce. Baby girl, he said he had tried to call you, but the service there is not all that great"

"He had no problem getting ahold of you though, right" Lizzie got up from the swing and walked inside, slamming the screen door behind her. She walked up the stairs to her room, and flopped down on the bed. She remembered the night Andy had snuck in. It was after midnight, and he was afraid that Lizzie's brother would hear him.

"His room is downstairs, behind the office. He did not want me sleeping down there in case someone came in on us in the middle of the night. Besides that, as loud as he snores, he could not hear a fly fart on the windowsill."

Andy had brought her body to peaks of desire that night. Lizzie could feel her body responding to the memory, and quickly snapped back to reality. He had gone, in the middle of the night, without saying a word. Lizzie turned over on her stomach and grabbed Harvey Norton, the teddy bear that her brother had bought her for her eighth birthday. She hugged him close to her and started to sob. She fell asleep still holding the teddy bear tight.

Rusty and Andy were on their way back to the plantation. Andy's plane had finally landed after a 2 hour layover in Atlanta. "IF you go to hell on an airplane" Rusty had told him, "You are gonna have a layover in Atlanta."

The two rode in silence and Andy finally spoke.

"How's Lizzie?" He stole a sideways glance at Rusty. Lizzie's brother had a matter of fact way about him, but his face was hard to read. Andy could look at Lizzie and almost know what she was thinking.

"Well son," Rusty drawled. "She aint all that good. She's real quiet, not sayin much at all. She gets like that when shes upset about something. I remember when Mama and Daddy died, she would not talk to anyone but Baxter, our old hound dog. She's been spendin a lot of time down at the stables carin for the horses, but she aint talking much. That always worries me. You need to get it out, not keep it bottled up, especially her. She's like a damn stick of dynamite. That's how come I told you you'd be best to keep your manhood guarded."

They turned down the familiar road that Andy had grown to love. He never thought he would want to live anywhere else but Alaska or Indiana but he was wrong. This place was almost paradise.

Rusty stopped and truck and killed the engine. He looked at Andy and opened the truck door.

"Well son, best take yourself on in there and get ya a good dose of medicine"

Andy signed and got out of the truck. Between the plane ride and the ride home, all he wanted to do was take a hot shower and go to sleep, but he knew he needed to find Lizzie.

Lizzie had decided to take Georgia out for a ride. The weather had finally cleared up, and it was still cloudy, but not raining. She loved riding, and today was perfect. With the rain ending, there was a cool breeze blowing, the angel's breath, her mama use to say. Lizzie pulled Georgia to a stop and patted the horses strong neck. This was the one thing that she could always count on, the one constant in her life, the animals. Rusty had told Andy that they seemed to understand her, and he was right. It seemed as if they knew exactly what Lizzie was saying to them.

Andy had looked all over the plantation house for Lizzie. She wasn't in her room, or anywhere in the house. He walked down to Pikes Pond, and she wasn't there either. Andy had turned to walk back toward the house, and heard a familiar whinny. Lizzie was out in the north pasture out riding. Andy walked over to the fence and leaned against it. He loved to watch her ride. She was so graceful.

Lizzie spotted him watching her, but she kept riding. He was wearing those tight ass Wranglers that outlined his male form. Lizzie usually loved him in those jeans. She slowed Georgia to a trot, and Andy headed toward the stables, knowing that her slowing meant she was ready to put Georgia back in her stall.

Andy walked into the stable just as Lizzie was dismounting. He reached for the reins, but she pulled away from him.

"I've got this. Been caring for these horses long before you showed up" She set Georgia's saddle up on the rail and reached for the brush. Andy watched her, not saying a word. He had fallen head over heels for her, and should have told her long before now.

Lizzie finished brushing Georgia and led her into the stall. She walked right past Andy, not saying a word.

"Man" he thought to himself, "You really fucked up this time"

Lizzie went back to the house and fixed lunch. They had three families staying at the plantation , and one of the younger boys had noticed Andy as "The Deadliest Catch Man" Thank goodness his attention was on the child so Lizzie did not have to talk to him.

After lunch, she was clearing tables, and he offered to help her. She told him no thanks , and walked back into the kitchen.

Later that evening, she was sitting on the porch, and her brother came out. He had two cold Miller Lite's and handed her one. Lizzie took the beer, and her brother sat down.

"What's Andy up to tonight" He asked her.

"Couldn't tell you. Havent seen him" Lizzie responded coldly. "His ass could have drowned in the pond or got his ass eaten up by a gator for all I care" She thought to herself. She took a deep swig off her beer. She looked up the driveway and saw a familiar figure walking toward the house. Rusty saw him too.

"OK, I am going inside. You sit your hard headed little ass out here and talk to that boy. True enough, he owes you an explanation that I am sure he will give you if you let him, but you need to hear him out. He had good reason for what he did" Rusty got up and walked back into the house.

Andy stepped up onto the porch and looked at Lizzie. She wasn't looking at him . Her eyes were straight ahead.

"Can I sit down" He asked her.

"It's a free country. I reckon you can sit most anywhere you please" Andy sat down on the swing beside her. She showered in a bath soap called Country Chic. Damn that stuff smelled good.

"So are we going to act like adults and talk about this?" He knew better than to push too hard. Lizzie was strong willed and would explode on you in a heartbeat.

"Yeah, we can talk like adults. You mind telling me why you just took off in the middle of the night with no explanation as to where you were going?"

Lizzie stood up and walked to the porch railing. Andy stood up and walked up behind her. He tried to wrap his arms around her like he had always done, but she pushed him away from her.

"You might think I am being childish, but put yourself in my place. Your ex wife calls you, and you just up and leave, no explanation, no phone call"

"I tried to call you." Andy spoke up but Lizzie cut him off.

"OH bullshit. I am suppose to believe that you tried to call me and had all this trouble, but you call my damn brother with no problems" Lizzie stared him down waiting for him to say something.

"I did try. I tried four or five times." He pulled the phone out of his pocket and held it up to her. Sure enough, he had tried calling her fifteen times.

"That still doesn't explain why you just left. What was I suppose to think Andy? What would you have thought" Lizzie walked to the steps and off the porch. She did not want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

Lizzie started down the path to Pikes Pond, and Andy was right behind her. Reaching the pond, she sat down on one of the huge rocks, and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Andy stood beside her and sighed. He told her about why Sabrina had called. He told her about the child she had born with another man. He looked at her to see if maybe she was looking at him with some sort of empathy. She was staring straight ahead. He walked in front of her and squatted down. He wanted her to look at him.

"Lizzie, please say something." She looked at him.

"What do you want me to say? You left!" I thought you were gone. When she called, I just assumed, Oh to hell with it"

Lizzie got up and started to walk away, but Andy grabbed her.

"Now you listen to me, we are going to talk this out whether you want to or not" He studied her face and knew her well enough to know that his leaving without an explanation was not the only thing bothering her. He pulled her close to him, and she wrapped her arms around him. He sighed with relief. Maybe she did not hate him after all.

He cupped her chin in his hand and turned her face upward. Tears were welling up in her eyes and the one thing he could not stand was to see her cry.

"I am sorry ok. I should have told you where I was going, you forgive me?" Lizzie nodded

Andy drew her in for a long deep kiss. She did not pull back this time.

"I missed you so bad" He said. He hugged her again, and held her for a long time. Lizzie relaxed in his arms."

They walked back up to the house and sat down on the porch steps.

"You know," Andy said, " When I first came here, I was just looking for a place for my heart to heal, and I found it. I found something else too. You. You make me so happy Lizzie. I never thought I would fall in love with anyone else after Sabrina, but I did." Andy kissed her. "I love you baby"

Lizzie looked at Andy with tears rolling down her face. She knew she had to tell him, but how.

"What's wrong?" Andy looked at her with concern.

Lizzie stood up and walked to the huge Pecan tree that stood in front of the house. She dropped her head and started to sob.

Andy walked up behind her and turned her around to face him.

"OK, what's wrong. Why are you crying like this?"

Lizzie looked up at him with her big brown eyes full of tears.

"I am late"


End file.
